MINAHITA.
I am ready! See, I wear
Wampum belt and garments gay;
Mark my smoothly braided hair,
Decked with shells and wild flower spray,
My wrists their silver circlets bear,
Polished with maiden’s patient care;
Unshrinking from the stormy foam,
I’m ready for my wild, chill home!
DOLBREKA.
Girl, thou art a worthy bride
For Niagara’s fierce King!
Men will think of thee with pride,
Maidens will thy courage sing,
Sachems tell of thee with praise,
Warriors on thee proudly gaze,
While pure and fair as ocean foam,
Thou passest to the Spirit’s home.
Chorus of Indian Braves.
We have launched the light canoe
Upon Niagara’s waters blue,
’Tis white and bright as an ocean shell,
Swifter than the sea gull’s wing,
Worthy the hand that will guide it well,
Amid the foam wreaths the wild waves fling.
Chorus of Indian Women.
And it is freighted with fragrant flowers,
The brightest culled ’mid our forest bowers,
Fruits ripened beneath the sun’s warm rays—
And silky tassels of golden maize,
And with them the maid who is doomed to bring
These gifts to the pitiless Cataract King.
Chorus of Male and Female Voices.
Fair are the flowers, but she’s fairer far,
Lovelier she than the Evening Star,
Pure as the moonbeams that tremulous shine,
Flooding the earth with their sheen divine.